If you haven’t been following the One Ocean, One Island project going at Skagit Valley College’s Marine Maintenance Technology Program in Anacortes, big things are happening.

The crew has been hard at work refitting a Bob Perry 48 Ketch to sail around North and South America. Planning to leave the Pacific Northwest in May, the Around the Americas will be a 14-month sailing and ocean research expedition around both continents. The 2025-2026 expedition will highlight the importance of education to motivate students of all ages to become future ocean stewards.

Overall, it’s been fun to follow the project and to see what they’ve been doing in outfitting the boat, One Ocean, and they are planning to launch at the end of February. Here’s an update from Michael Beemer.

After four months of very intense work, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There is still a mountain of work to go, but we are feeling good about refitting this Bob Perry Custom 48′ Ketch for the Around the America’s Project. This month we’ve basically finished the bow thruster project, new cutter rig forestay, most final engine hook up, headliner work, and the electric cabin top winch – AWESOME!

At the Marine Technology Center in Anacortes, we have been super busy training a new group of technicians to go out and work in the marine industry fixing boats. All the while with the boat owners, staff, volunteers, and students working on this major boat project.

Also we have a project board, check-list, and lots of organization to ensure we are on track to launch this boat in February and depart May 2025. The list appears endless, but we are making lots of progress!

We are refitting this boat to support the educational and research journey that One Ocean will embark on in May 2025 sailing around North and South America. This 14 month and 27,000 mile journey will be doing research and virtual lessons for any student in the world. All data collected will be open source and the curriculum/lessons will be available for FREE!

This Bob Perry custom ketch is going on 30 years old and had a bunch of work done in 2009, which was 15 years ago. We’ll be ready to go Around the Americas by May 2025!

Information about the expedition can be found at www.oneislandoneocean.com.

Also on social media: oneisland.oneocean